A wheel axle suspension is disclosed in, for example, DE 296 15 286. With this known wheel axle suspension, the axle body is clamped directly against a contact region of a spring trailing arm by means of a clamping plate which is situated on that side of the axle body which is turned away from the trailing arm, and by a pair of U-shaped clamping straps extending around the trailing arm and through holes in the clamping plate. At the location of the axle clamp, the axle body is deformed to form a non-round contour with flattened regions which contact the contact region of the trailing arm. Here, the spring trailing arm has a constant width, that is to say, the contact region and the spring portion have the same width.
In order to save material, weight and space in the structure, the bearing springs are generally designed to be as narrow as possible, with the trailing arm still having a width and height which are such that the rolling motions of the vehicle can still be absorbed to a sufficient degree. In the case of the spring trailing arm from DE 296 15 286, this results in the axle body which extends at right angles to the trailing arm being only clamped in over a limited length of the axle body. As a result thereof, the axle body is subjected to high loads locally, due to the high clamping forces which are required to fix the axle. Particularly with thin-walled tubular axle bodies, this is a problem as these axle bodies, due to the great forces, are deformed significantly which adversely affects their service life. It is known to increase the length of the axle body which is clamped in by using an axle pad which is arranged between the trailing arm and the axle body and is wider than the trailing arm. Such a structure is shown, for example, in FIG. 7 of DE 296 15 286, but has the drawback that more parts are required which results in a more complicated fitting.
It should be noted that US 2006/0163834 discloses a wheel axle suspension having a rigid trailing arm which is produced by casting or forging and is provided with a sleeve through which the axle body extends in the fitted state. The sleeve may be formed as a single part, with the axle body having to be pushed into the latter in the axial direction, but the sleeve may also be made up of two halves which are welded to one another by means of axial welding after the axle body has been placed therein. The sleeve is wider than that part of the trailing arm which is situated in front thereof. The sleeve is designed to be welded to the axle body. To this end, the sleeve has openings in which a plug weld or the like can be provided for connecting the sleeve to the axle body.